Heart training zones

[Citius]

You will find as your fitness imroves more your stepover rate will decrease.

Now, I've been riding, racing and coaching for many many years now - and I can honestly say that I have never heard of - or never heard anyone else refer to - 'stepover heart rate'. I've never seen any reference to it, and I have never heard any other coach or sports scientist refer to it either.

So it is safe to assume that either I (and others) have missed a huge chunk of potentially performance enhancing data - or that it is a completely made-up and irrelevant metric. I'm going to guess the latter.

 

[screenman]

I had a period of 2 years being unfit, my stepover rate was about 90 I am now back fit and my stepover rate is about 55, please explain why that is. Where have I said it is performance enhancing?

 

[Tin Pot]

I had a period of 2 years being unfit, my stepover rate was about 90 I am now back fit and my stepover rate is about 55, please explain why that is. Where have I said it is performance enhancing?

You can't ask people to prove something based on a factor nobody agrees with.

No one thinks valid or uses "step over rate" - if you want to put together a logical argument and a scientific paper on why this rate is a valid measure of anything, then we can respond.

Until then, the rest of the world will use resting heart rate, lactate threshold and VO2 max.

 

[Citius]

I had a period of 2 years being unfit, my stepover rate was about 90 I am now back fit and my stepover rate is about 55, please explain why that is. Where have I said it is performance enhancing?

I'm not suggesting it is 'performance enhancing' in itself, simply that if you measure something, the result ought to mean something which can then be acted upon. The stepover measurement means absolutely nothing and is not indicative of anything, because there are too many external variables to make the data meaningful and actionable.

It's a bit like me saying "yesterday, while sitting at my PC, my HR was 68bpm, while today it is 64bpm - therefore, I can deduce that typing on my keyboard yesterday has reduced my HR by 4bpm." Now, if that sounds absurd - it's because it is absurd.

 

[ayceejay]

I have never heard of a standover heart rate either but with an open mind I wonder what this could tell us, after all athletic training is not fixed and there might be something to learn.
If you have a resting heart rate of say 59 bpm but a consistent standover rate of 91 bpm which one is better for calculating zones?
If your SOR goes up to 120 on race day we can put this down to anxiety or excitement but if it is a constant 91 every day what does this mean? You go from 59 to 91 just dressing and preparing for a ride - is this an indicator of anything, especially if it goes down or stays the same when you start to ride.

 

[Tin Pot]

I have never heard of a standover heart rate either but with an open mind I wonder what this could tell us, after all athletic training is not fixed and there might be something to learn.
If you have a resting heart rate of say 59 bpm but a consistent standover rate of 91 bpm which one is better for calculating zones?
If your SOR goes up to 120 on race day we can put this down to anxiety or excitement but if it is a constant 91 every day what does this mean? You go from 59 to 91 just dressing and preparing for a ride - is this an indicator of anything, especially if it goes down or stays the same when you start to ride.

No, it doesn't tell us anything.

Neither do:
Sitting At Desk Heart Rate
Talking On The Phone Heart Rate or
Feeling Slightly Uneasy Heart Rate

 

[Citius]

I have never heard of a standover heart rate either but with an open mind I wonder what this could tell us, after all athletic training is not fixed and there might be something to learn.

Standing over a bike does not really constitute 'athletic training' though, does it. All a 'stand-over' HR will tell you is what your HR was doing while you were standing over your bike. You might as well measure your HR while sitting on the toilet for all the relevance it will have.

 

[Citius]

No, it doesn't tell us anything.

Neither do:
Sitting At Desk Heart Rate
Talking On The Phone Heart Rate or
Feeling Slightly Uneasy Heart Rate

What about heart rate while measuring heart rate..?

 

[ayceejay]

Such definitive knowledge is to be admired.
If we are aiming for a low heart rate so that we can sustain the effort in an endurance event knowing what else elevates the heart rate besides the actual exercise would be useful to know.
I am assuming we are in agreement that an elevated heart rate means that the heart is working harder?

 

[Citius]

If we are aiming for a low heart rate so that we can sustain the effort in an endurance event knowing what else elevates the heart rate besides the actual exercise would be useful to know.

Why would it be useful to know that? And how would you alter your training in response to that information?

I am assuming we are in agreement that an elevated heart rate means that the heart is working harder?

I'm sure we can also agree that when the sun comes up, it means it's daytime. You just keep on flogging that dead horse...

 

[ayceejay]

All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence, and then success is sure.
Mark Twain

 

[screenman]

Why would it be useful to know that? And how would you alter your training in response to that information?



I'm sure we can also agree that when the sun comes up, it means it's daytime. You just keep on flogging that dead horse...

Are you suggesting that an elevated HR is not working harder than one beating slower, just clarifying.

 

[Andrew_P]

Just looking at my garmin now and it puts my zones as 1 = 92 - 111 BPM
Zone 5 as 166 - 185 BPM .
Riding normally for training that puts me in zone 4-5 all the time and that's trying not to put in extra effort ( apart from hills )

If you are 35 and you are using 220- your age as your max HR it is not right, just a quick look on your Strava and you have hit 190 going up a hill. So as most people have said you really need to find your true or a realistic max HR to get a realistic view on zones. Garmin will use your max HR to give you zones working backwards from max, fairly confident that whatever you put in as resting HR won't effect zones.

 

[Citius]

Are you suggesting that an elevated HR is not working harder than one beating slower, just clarifying.

I think we can all accept that a heart that beats faster is beating faster than one that beats slower. The 'working harder' bit is not clear cut, as there are other factors which affect that. An elevated reading from the same heart on different days would certainly suggest it is working harder for some reason. But it doesn't automatically follow that you are somehow more aerobically challenged than you were the day before.

 

[Citius]

All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence, and then success is sure.
Mark Twain

So the best response you can offer to mine and Tin Pot's perfectly reasonable comments and questions is a quote from Mark Twain? And because you can't answer them, WE are the ignorant ones???

Seriously, you've added nothing to this thread apart from a series of truisms and general confusion. It's not like the OP wasn't confused enough already.